Tim Harty, The Business Times

Many nonprofit organizations rely on grants and donations to fund their operations. And that’s often just to keep the doors open.

It’s also an approach rife with uncertainty, and when people’s pocketbooks are getting pinched, competition for donated dollars increases.

When it comes to The Arc of Mesa County, Executive Director Lincoln Folkers doesn’t want the nonprofit, which advocates for and supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), to merely survive. He wants it to thrive. And he’d like some certainty when it comes to funding it.

As a result, The Arc of Mesa County, 845 Grand Ave., is being proactive and opening a for-profit business, The Sensory Store, to fund the nonprofit business. Folkers said renovation of the store’s space at 2412 Patterson Road, Unit 2, between Cafe Rio and Canyon View Dental, is going smoothly, and he hopes for a soft launch in the middle of June and a grand opening around July 1.

Folkers said The Arc of Mesa County was looking at how to create a “more sustainable future for ourselves, where our funding is adequate and we’re not constantly going to grant tours and things like that, trying to get more money every year.”

They came up with the concept of The Sensory Store, which is wholly owned by The Arc of Mesa County.

“And so,” Folkers said, “when you start thinking of sensory, there are a lot of people with disabilities, and even people who don’t have visible disabilities, who oftentimes need sensory support. And so, in those sensory supports, you’ve seen all the fidget toys and the plush dolls or the plush stuffed animals, if you will. But The Sensory Store’s a lot more than just the fidgets and the chewables and the plush toys and things like that.”

Folkers said The Sensory Store can become a hub for the educators and physical therapists and others who work with IDD people, providing items they need to do their jobs. He said The Sensory Store will be a better alternative than buying those items online “and wondering if they’re really getting what they’re going to need to support the people that they do services for. We will have those things in store, so they’ll actually be able to come in and put their hands on it, touch it, feel it, see if it works for them, and then they can buy through us, and they can even order through us online.”

He added, “It’s a very well and very closely curated list of items that we will carry in store, so that people have the options to come in and experience those firsthand before they buy them.”

The Sensory Store also will provide jobs for the people The Arc of Mesa County supports. Folkers estimates the store will have 15 to 18 part-time employees and two or three full-time employees. In addition to a store manager, the store will employ a job coach “who will work with the people with disabilities to make sure that they have the supports that they need to be successful in what we do.”

The store will be retail, and Folkers said it will do some business-to-business sales.

“We want to work with doctors offices and physical therapy clinics, OT (occupational therapy) clinics, speech therapists, things like that,” Folkers said.

He also reiterated, “This store will not be just for people with disabilities. There’s something in this store for everybody. … It’s gonna be someplace that people are gonna enjoy to come and shop. … Everybody’s gonna want to come and see this. It’s gonna be a fantastic experience to come shop in. And I’m super excited to get it open.”

If all goes well at The Sensory Store, The Arc of Mesa County may put more stores in other communities.

“We have requests, three of them in the state of Colorado and two of them in Utah, to come plant Sensory Stores in those locations,” Folkers said. “You know, it’s not something that we’re prepared to do today, obviously. But like I’ve told everybody that’s asked … as soon as we prove this model out, we know what works … and I’m confident that we can replicate it, we’ll go.”

Some growth for The Arc of Mesa County is more certain, and necessary, such as a new office on 24 Road.

“We’re growing, and when you start growth, you outgrow the spaces that you’re in,” Folkers said. “There was an opportunity to buy land (where) Coloramo built that big, beautiful bank building, and there was six or seven lots up there, and we found one that worked for the size that we need. So, we decided to go ahead and purchase the land, with plans of building within two to three years to move our office space out there.”